NAACP

On August 19, 1989, off-duty cop Mark MacPhail was shot and killed in Savannah, GA. Troy Davis was arrested and sentenced to death. There was no physical evidence linking him to MacPhail’s murder. There were nine witnesses who said that Davis was the killer. Seven of those nine witnesses have recanted their testimony citing coercion by law enforcement. One of the two remaining witnesses is the original prime suspect.

Based on these facts, one has to wonder why the State of Georgia insists on executing Troy Davis on September 21, 2011. There is just too much doubt in the case of Troy Davis.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions asking that Troy Davis not be executed. Several former government officials and celebrities have also asked that Troy Davis not be executed. However, Michael MacPhail’s mother is looking forward to the execution of Troy Davis. She thinks it will bring her some peace. My heart goes out to her. I know the pain she feels. I know the feeling of having a child’s life taken in such a violent manner.

The truth, however, is that there is too much doubt that Troy Davis murdered Mark MacPhail. Family and friends want someone to pay for Mark’s murder. If Troy Davis is executed, their desire will still not have been honestly satisfied.

The execution of Troy Davis would be a terrible miscarriage of justice. Here are three steps you can take to help him before the Georgia Parole Board meets on September 19. 2011:

2. Sign the name wall, if you haven't already. And if you have, send it to your friends and family. Each name means a more united front for justice: http://action.naacp.org/Name-Wall

3. Make sure everyone knows about this injustice. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter (using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt) so that Troy Davis's story can be heard. We still have a chance to save his life, but only if people are willing to speak out against injustice.

As I am writing this I am watching CNN. John McCain is speaking to a crowd in Ohio and he is telling blatant lies. He says that Barack Obama will raise taxes and that is a lie. He says that Barack Obama has never reached across the aisle on any major issue and that is a lie.

A John McCain presidency will be much like his campaign tactics. Lies, lies and more lies. We cannot afford four more years of lies and distractions. Your race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual preference and political party affiliation are irrelevant. As Americans, we will sink or swim together depending on which ticket you vote for in the general election.

If you have not registered to vote, do so right now. Time is running out and the voter rolls will close soon. If you haven't voted within the last four years, you may need to register again. Check it out NOW. Don't wait.

Far too many people have fought and died for blacks to have the right to vote. The vote is the great equalizer. Use it, don't lose it.

Elmore Nickelberry, left, then a Memphis sanitation worker on strike, was shocked at the King slaying: 'I was mad. It hurt me.' His son Terence displays a slogan made famous by the 1968 sanitation strike. CARL JUSTE / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

If you met me, you would regard it as a self-evident truth. But there was a time it would not have been.

See, I am a black man.

And for most of the years of America's existence, the terms were regarded by many as mutually exclusive. You could be black or you could be a man. You could not be both. Last month marked 40 years since striking sanitation workers in Memphis, virtually all of them black, composed a defiant response:

I AM A Man … the verb capitalized and underlined for emphasis on signs they carried as they marched for fair wages, for better conditions, for their own dignity.

Friday marks 40 years since that era came to its bloody end. Standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had gone to support the sanitation workers, Martin Luther King was shot and killed.

Forty years later, here I am, a man - a black man in an era where black men, like other men, struggle to define manhood itself. Is it defined by strength? By toughness? By sexual potency? By money?

Forty years ago, it was defined by a single act of courage, black men saying what was unsayable and daring anyone ever to deny it again.

GREENVILLE, S.C. Greenville's NAACP says it will conduct its own inquiry into the hanging death of a 25-year-old man in the Fountain Inn jail.

Police said Richard J. Johnson hanged himself with his long-sleeve T-shirt while he was in a holding cell alone July 29.

Johnson's family says the man had just gotten a new job and was engaged to be married, said Clarence Echols, president of the Greenville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"There was no indication that he would do anything to take his own life," Echols said.

The NAACP is helping the family raise the $3,400 needed for a second autopsy.

Fountain Inn police Chief Keith Morton said Johnson was arrested with a co-defendant and did not show any "signs of distress or odd behavior." Morton said Johnson died about an hour after being charged with possession of crack cocaine.

TALLAHASSEE, FL (AP) -- The process to compensate the parents of Martin Lee Anderson for their son's death is moving forward in the Legislature.

A bill was introduced in the Florida Senate today to give a $5 million payment to Anderson's parents. The teen died after being hit and kicked by guards in a juvenile boot camp in Bay County last year.

Meanwhile, the Senate president and House speaker agreed their chambers will hold special hearings together on the proposed claims bill. Usually, a claims bill can take years before it passes the Legislature. But in this case, Governor Crist had asked legislative leaders to expedite the process.